Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of secure network communication and, more particularly, to authentication and configuration information for a computing device.
Description of the Related Art
As computer memory storage and data bandwidth increase, so does the amount and complexity of data that business and industry manage each day. Data management operations capable of creating, capturing, storing, distributing, protecting and consuming information become complex as the data size grows. In addition, data management operations, such as operations used in enterprise information management, provide regulatory compliance. Regulatory compliance ensures the accuracy and completeness of data contained in files and reports as well as consistent data across the enterprise. Different types of storage devices are deployed across the enterprise to provide these operations. The storage devices may be used in a data center, a remote or branch office, and virtual environments.
Both enterprise and small business environments may deploy multiple storage devices to provide the above data management operations. In some examples, the storage devices are storage appliances. In addition, the environments may deploy multiple computing devices such as desktop computers, laptops and servers. Such environments typically support multiple users who may login locally and/or remotely to one or more devices. Each of these users generally has configuration information including privileges, permissions and roles. In many cases, this user configuration information may be consistent for a given user across several devices. In most cases, a system administrator manually configures and maintains the user configuration information on each of the corresponding devices. Further, any updates to the user configuration information requires the system administrator to manually replicate the same update on each of the corresponding devices.
Enterprise environments typically utilize a user directory service to manage the identity of authorized users on devices. The user directory service may also manage some or all of the users' configuration information. In order the devices to use the directory service, the system administrator must separately configure each of the multiple devices in the enterprise environment. Therefore, any updates to the user directory service, such as updates to the user directory server properties, may require the system administrator to manually replicate the same update on each of the corresponding devices. Manual updates performed across the multiple devices may be tedious, time consuming, performed infrequently due to the amount of time required, and provide inconsistent user directory service configuration information and/or user configuration information across the enterprise or small business environment.
In view of the above, improved systems and methods for efficiently obtaining user configuration information for a given device are desired.